The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for monitoring a gas and fine particles by means of a living plant.
Various techniques have been proposed in which a living organism is used to detect an odor or the like that is present in the form of a gas of a very small quantity or fine particles. A first technique known today is constructing a high-sensitivity odor sensor using a liposome which is an artificial biomembrane. An example of this technique is described in the issue dated May 11, 1989 of Nikkei Sangyo Shinbun. A second approach is detecting an odor gas by. recording a change in the cell potential of a leaf of a plant when a mixture of an odor gas and a carbon dioxide gas is applied to the plant. An example of this approach is described in "Koryo (Perfumes)", No. 158, June 1988.
The prior art techniques described above have suffered from the disadvantage of requiring complicated procedures. For example, the second approach cannot be implemented without erecting electrodes on a leaf of a living plant.